Sonnet 18

It may be argued that the narrator’s ode is not addressed to any specific person but to the experience of love personified in early stages of infatuation. In the third line, the speaker shifts from what seems to be admiration for someone and narrates an experience. The “[r]ough winds” (Line 3) could be the tempests arising during a romance still in bloom, referred to here as “the darling buds of May” (Line 3). Early passions are ephemeral, like “summer’s lease” (Line 4), especially when the experience is “too hot” (Line 5). Thus, what was once unimaginably beautiful—“every fair from fair sometime declines” (Line 7)—can become commonplace as passion quells with time and feelings evolve, expressed here as “chance” or “nature’s changing course” (Line 8). Conversely, love, as a state of being that needn’t any fixed object, is eternal and “shall not fade” (Line 9) or “lose possession of that fair thou ow’st” (Line 10). It will exist for as long as humanity does and will reinforce one’s will to live: “So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, / So long lives this, and this gives life to thee” (Lines 13-14).